Week 6 - Leaving Brest

My joke every year is that we fly these students 4,000 miles away from home on an eight hour flight, then we put them on a bus for six hours, then hand them over to strangers who don’t speak English, while they are expected to speak French.

But when we leave Brest, those strangers are now family. And leaving them is every bit as hard, if not more so, than leaving their American families.

The French are not really big on hugging, but departure morning, there are lots of hugs and lots of tears.

Nathan's mom doesn't even do the bise with French people,
but she hugged Nathan.

And Marion gave sage advise to Aaron... and lots of food.

Émilie and Shivani with their mom, Ano.

Tara with her whole family Cariou.

Bruno cried. He did. I saw him. Natalie was so lucky to be with them.

Did I mention that the French don't hug?

No, they don't hug...

This is NOT a group hug.

Valentine and Miranda

Emily is NOT crying (yes she is).

The French don't hug (Yes they do).